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January 29, 2019

The Financial Crisis of 2008 Devastated Millions. Were You One Of Them?

The Financial Crisis of 2008 was devastating.

The stock market dropped 50%. Your retirement plan was devastated.

The housing market suffered the biggest bear market since the Dirty Thirties. Many people, you?, lost their house. Everybody suffered.

Companies went bankrupt. Many people, you?, lost their jobs.

Banks were shaken. Many went bankrupt.

What I just wrote is all true but doesn't really tell the story.

The real story is the real suffering that tens of millions of people went through.

A friend of mine worked for many years in a construction company. He had built a nice life for himself and his family. They had just moved up to a kinda fancy house with a big pool in the backyard that his kids loved to play in when the summer heat hit.

Sure they were financially stretched a bit, but, hey, who isn't? But they still had money for a nice vacation and going out to restaurants.

But then, in early 2008, the Crisis hit. He lost his job. He did have much savings because they just put all their savings into the down payment on the house.

The housing market starting moving briskly lower. His mortgage went underwater. He started getting calls from the bank about his payments. They were getting further and further behind on them.

Then he lost his job.

I can't imagine what it must have been like to go home that day and have to tell his wife that he was out of a job. I just can't imagine how painful that must have been. I can't imagine what his wife said and what was the expression on her face. I can't imagine.

His 401(k) is getting hammered while all this is going on.

He was not protected from the Financial Crisis. He did not protect his family...